Turkish Police Research Articles

Emniyet Teşkilatı’nda Ücret Yönetimi: Rize Emniyet Müdürlüğü Alan Araştırması

Emniyet Teşkilatı’nda Ücret Yönetimi: Rize Emniyet Müdürlüğü Alan Araştırması

Models for violence by Turkish police officers toward romantic partners and police partners

Social learning theory suggests that displays of violence in close relationships would be increased for individuals exposed to family models of violence, especially from parents. Because police officers may regard their departments as a second ‘family,’ violence shown by the ‘father figure’ police supervisor may be a significant model for violence, as recent research has found for American police officers. The police supervisor might also be expected to be a powerful model for violence because Turkish police officers serve in a male-dominated workplace in a largely male-dominated society. This study examined how violence reported by Turkish police officers in their close relationships (toward romantic partners, toward police partners) was explained by parental models from the ‘home family’ (father-to-mother, mother-to-father, father-to-participant, mother-to-participant) and from the ‘police family’ (supervisor-to-participant). Study participants included 233 Turkish police officers (96% male; 66% under 30 years of age; 6.9 mean years of service) who completed anonymous questionnaires to report violence in each relationship using the six-item subscale of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the set of ‘home family’ and ‘police family’ parental models explained 42% of variance in romantic partner violence and 74% of variance in police partner aggression. Violence from the police supervisor was the most consistent and significant model, perhaps because the police supervisor was a new and powerful ‘father figure’ for the relatively young officers of the present study. Violence received from the mother was also associated with increased risk of police partner violence, perhaps because mothers were the officers’ primary caretakers during childhood, making their style of conflict resolution the most prevalent parental model. Employee assistance programs to encourage ‘Peace in the Family’ for Turkish police officers may require participation by police supervisors, who must model non-violent conflict resolution in their departments.

LEOSS-R: Four Types of Police Stressors and Negative Psychosocial Outcomes Associated with Them

The present study developed the Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey-Revised (LEOSS-R) to identify types of police stressors, then it examined which stressors were most associated with negative psychosocial outcomes for police officers. Participants included 232 Turkish police officers who completed anonymous surveys to describe work and home characteristics, to rate the 25 police stressors included in the LEOSS ( Van Hasselt et al. , 2008 ), and to report negative psychosocial outcomes that might be associated with exposure to police stressors. Factor analysis produced the 18-item LEOSS-R with four dimensions of police stressors: Critical Incidents, Department Politics, Daily Hassles, and Work–Home Conflicts. The LEOSS-R subscales showed goodness-of-fit, strong internal reliability, and support for validity in expected associations with work and home variables (work hours, police support, marital status, family support). Critical Incidents and Work–Home Conflicts were unrelated to negative psychosocial outcomes, perhaps because police officers expect and train for them. The stressor of Department Politics was associated with more police partner aggression. Daily Hassles were associated with more anger, poor self-esteem, and more romantic partner aggression. Future research could examine how departmental policy or leadership may reduce the negative impact of Daily Hassles for its officers.

The Sources of Stress, The Symptoms of Stress and Anger Styles as a Psychosocial Risk at Occupational Health and Safety: A Case Study on Turkish Police Officers

The present study aims at measuring the sources of stress, the symptoms of stress and anger styles of police officers as psychosocial risk factors. A survey was carried out on 5725 randomly selected police officers in a big city in Turkey. The questionnaire included some personal information. When collecting data, Mayerson's Stress Factor Scale was used to measure the sources of stress. The Psychological Symptom Checklist-SCL-90-R was used to measure the participants’ psychological symptoms and the State Trait Anger Scale (STAS) is used to measure anger styles of police officers. When analyzing data, correlations and stepwise multiple regression analysis are used to examine the relationship.The findings of the present study have shown that there are meaningful relationships among the symptoms of stress, the sources of stress and anger. According to this pointing system, it has been found that the police officers got higher stress points from the Mayerson Stress Sources Scale when physical environment, job, social stress and self-expression are considered, and they were tended to have increased problems. Psychological symptoms are highly prevalent among Turkish Police officers. In the end, several suggestions have been made to the police departments to help the officers who are affected adversely by job stress. According to these findings, we suggest a more specific research to be performed in order to determine and prevent these stress factors among Turkish Police officers.

Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward the Implementation of Community-Oriented Policing in Turkey

The current study aims to analyze the historical development of community-oriented policing (COP) in Turkey as well as exploring officers’ attitudes toward COP and examining factors related to their attitudes. The current research is based on a survey of 405 Turkish police officers. We focused on officers’ demographic characteristics, work orientation, training, the level of participation in decision-making, and perception toward public as a way of understanding officers’ attitudes toward community policing. Our research suggests that majority of organization members have favorable attitudes toward community policing and support it in general and in their own department. The results indicate a positive relationship between participation in decision-making, service work orientation, officers’ relationships with citizens, and police officers’ attitudes toward community policing. Furthermore, the study assesses the effects of police culture on officers’ attitudes in a highly centralized police agency and discusses the policy implications of our findings.

Mayday in Turkey: Arın Gül Yeniaras, a lawyer in Istanbul describes mass arrest by Turkish police and the subsequent occupation of the court house by lawyers to free them

Mayday in Turkey: Arın Gül Yeniaras, a lawyer in Istanbul describes mass arrest by Turkish police and the subsequent occupation of the court house by lawyers to free them

European Union twinning projects and the Turkish police: Looking beyond Europeanization

AbstractThe literature of Europeanization claims that the EU transforms the politics of member and candidate countries through processes such as social learning and socialization. This article questions the emphasis of Europeanization studies on ideational factors by looking at the example of Turkey-EU relations. The reform projects undertaken jointly by the EU and the Turkish police show that the EU seeks to transform the practices of candidate country actors, rather than simply their ideas. Moreover, the candidate country actors are not only passive learners, but they also seek to modify the content of EU reforms according to their interests.

Atatürk and After: Three Perspectives on Political Change in Turkey

The retaking of Gezi Park by the Turkish police began on June 11, 2013. The government's aim was to “clear banners from the Atatürk Cultural Centre and the statue of Atatürk.” The center, built in Istanbul's Taksim square in the 1960s, in order to advertise the Western identity of the new Republic, after a military coup, is eventually to be replaced as part of urban redevelopment schemes. Whether Atatürk's general legacy is secure in contemporary Turkey is open to debate. The electoral victory of the AKP party in 2002 had weakened the ability of the secular elite to prevent change. Many Gezi Park protestors saw the AKP's legislation as a growing threat to their lifestyles. Yet the AKP's victory was also seen as a vindication of democracy, and it look little time before a “Turkish model” began to be promoted for the Middle East. The Gezi Park protests raise the question of what really has changed since 2002. This article discusses three books. The first studies Atatürk's ideas. The second, focused more on popular culture, traces changes in identities. The third discusses change in the state-society relationship. The concluding section relates them to the question of democracy in Turkey.

The meaning of fatherhood as perceived by Turkish police fathers and their young children

The purpose of this study is to provide insight and understanding of Turkish police fathers’ and their young children’s conceptualizations of fatherhood. Data for the present study came from 21 police fathers and their 4-to-6 year old children. We asked the participant fathers to respond to a broad question of “What kind of father am I?” in writing. We used Kinetic Family Drawing, a projective-expressive technique, to collect data from children. Obtained data were evaluated for the content, patterns, emergent themes, and narrative properties by constant comparative methods. Overall, the police fathers and their children in this study tended to identify fatherhood with the traditional provider model and the disciplinarian function. Rather than providing physical care, fathers were more inclined to engage in playful and non-containing interactions with their children. However, all participant fathers expressed desire to be more involved with their children than they currently are, be more actively engaged in their children’s lives and go beyond simply providing for their children’s needs financially. Key words: Meaning of fatherhood, Turkish police fathers, experiences of fathers.

Turkey Must End Violent Response to Protests

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) reported that 8121 people were officially admitted to hospitals resulting from police violence between 31 May and 26 June (1). This number includes 5 deaths, 61 life-threatening injuries, 104 head traumas, and 11 ophthalmic injuries, one of which led to loss of an eye due to shots of tear gas canisters from short range (1). Turkish police have used excessive amounts of tear gas (lachrymatory agents) in public (2) and confined spaces such as hospitals or infirmaries, according to international media reports and the TTB (1–4). Such use of asphyxiating gases in confined spaces is not only extremely dangerous for public health (5–8), but also strictly limited by international agreements, such as the Geneva Protocol (9), to which Turkey is a signatory. Security forces have used 130,000 tear-gas cartridges in 20 days, and Turkey is planning to buy 100,000 new cartridges (10). Doctors and nurses treating patients affected by tear gas and other police brutality, as well as the Istanbul Medical Chamber General Secretary, have been apprehended by police (11, 12), a clear violation of customary international and human rights law (13). More than 4000 academics around the world have already signed a petition to protest the police brutality (14). We call upon the Turkish government to obey international law in the treatment of protesters and those providing medical treatment to them, and to start a good-faith dialogue with the protest movement.

On two Old Italian Turcisms (1. cassasso 2. pettomagi/pettomanzi)

The paper aims to explain the origin of two old Italian words of Turkish origin, cassasso ‘a Turkish police officer’ and pettomagi/pettomanzi ‘Turkish officer(s) dealing with the possesions of the dead’. Contrary to a previous etymology of his, the author’s present opinion is that cassasso derives from the Ottoman-Turkish hasas, a spoken variant of the literary Arabism ‘ases ‘a guard, night-watchman, policeman’. As to pettomagi/pettomanzi, it is possibly a Turkish adaptation of Greek words as πeθ αμός ‘death’, πeθ αμένος ‘dead’ + nominal suffix -cI.

Gender issues and the women of the Turkish National Police

This study focuses on the cultural context and gender issues of the policewomen of Ankara, Turkey, a modern, secular, Muslim city. The authors provide a brief history of the status of women in Turkey, and analyze the place of women both in the current Turkish labor market and within the Turkish police. A non‐random, open‐ended survey was done of various ranks of Turkish women police officers in Ankara about their work and personal conditions. The results confirm that women officers have gender work‐related problems.

Demokrat Parti Döneminde İç Güvenlik ve Türk Polis Teşkilatı

Democrat Party (DP) period in Turkey covering the period between 14th May 1950 elections and the 27 May 1960 coup d’etat has been handled by many scholars. In the related essays the DP governments have been criticized for manipulating and reforming the police forces for their political aims. In the lead up to 27 May a number of separate incidents took place in Turkey. The Turkish Police were to blame on the ground that they politically (government) motivated against these incidents and lost its impartiality. Therefore, the Turkish national police organization was one of the mostly affected state bodies by the coup and could not get rid of this effect for a long time. This article shows DP’s law enforcement policies, government’s attitudes, police-politicians relations, how the police organization failed to respond to advance warnings and incidents of this coup and briefly the main problems as to its own organization following the coup.

Madde Etkisi Şüphesi Altındaki Sürücülerde Tükürük Analizi

İlaç/maddelerin trafik kazalarına etkisi bir çok yayında gösterilmiştir. Son on yılda, yol üzerinde uygulanabilen madde testleriyle ilişkili birçok gelişme meydana gelmiştir. Kötüye kullanımı olan maddelerin etkisi altındaki sürücünün saptanmasına yönelik hızlı, güvenilir ve kolay uygulanabilir yol üzeri testler, ter, idrar ve tükürük gibi alternatif matriksler üzerine odaklanmıştır. Avrupa birliği ROSITA projesi (Road Side Testing Assessment), kannabinoid, opiat, amfetamin ve türevlerinin yüksek prevalans gösterdiği birçok yasadışı maddenin, farklı biyolojik matrikslerde bulunduğunu göstermiştir. Ege Üniversitesi ve İzmir Emniyet müdürlüğü’nün işbirliği ve Cozart firmasının katkılarıyla bu proje gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu projenin amacı, bu yol üzeri uygulanan testin kullana-bilirliği ve uygulanabilirliği yanında polis tarafından karşılaşabilecek problemleri saptamaktır. Bu çalışmada trafik kontrol noktalarında randomize olarak seçilen 25 araç sürücüsünde solunum havasında etilalkol analizi yanında tükürükte kötüye kullanımı olan maddelerin analizi için Cozart Bioscience Ra-piscan 5’li tükürük panel testi (kannabinoid, amfetamin, kokain, opiat ve benzodiazepin) uygulanmıştır. Kişiler gönüllü onam formunu imzalayarak çalışmaya katılmışlardır. Doğrulama GC-MS’le yapılmış; oral sıvıda MDA 65 ng/mL ve MDMA 180 ng/mL olarak bulunmuştur.Anahtar kelimeler: Madde etkisi altında taşıt sürme, yol üzeri madde testi, tükürük

Recruitment in the Turkish police

This article critically examines selection methods in the Turkish Police recruitment processes, and the nature of the formal and informal arrangements therein. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data techniques were used to collect the data analyzed. It was found that while the formal selection methods involve rigorous intelligence, medical, physical and background tests, there are a number of important "invisible" variables that shape the selection process. Although all Turkish citizens who meet the specified formal requirements officially have equal rights for recruitment to the police, discrimination on the basis of gender and political affiliation was found to be present, particularly relating to the police high schools and police academy.

Injuries and fatalities in Turkish road traffic accidents

This study aims to describe quantitatively the injuries and fatalities from high rates of serious road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Turkey, to identify any trends during the period 1980–2000, to compare the results with those of developed countries and to evaluate the information available on possible causes with a view to identifying the most useful direction for future research. Data were obtained from the Turkish police, State Institute of Statistics, health sources and, for international comparison, from the published literature. Estimates of trends were made using linear regression. The results revealed that during the period 1980–2000, the rates of RTAs per 100 000 population and per 100 000 motor vehicles increased. Deaths in each RTA increased in the short period (1980–1987) and declined during the period 1987–2000. RTA injuries during the period 1980–2000 increased steadily. Between 1980 and 2000 the severity rate (the ratio of fatalities per 1000 RTAs) decreased threefold in Turkey. Turkey's rates were compared to a number of selected countries. Further investigation requiring close collaboration between police and health authorities is therefore essential.

Injuries and fatalities in Turkish road traffic accidents

This study aims to describe quantitatively the injuries and fatalities from high rates of serious road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Turkey, to identify any trends during the period 1980–2000, to compare the results with those of developed countries and to evaluate the information available on possible causes with a view to identifying the most useful direction for future research. Data were obtained from the Turkish police, State Institute of Statistics, health sources and, for international comparison, from the published literature. Estimates of trends were made using linear regression. The results revealed that during the period 1980–2000, the rates of RTAs per 100 000 population and per 100 000 motor vehicles increased. Deaths in each RTA increased in the short period (1980–1987) and declined during the period 1987–2000. RTA injuries during the period 1980–2000 increased steadily. Between 1980 and 2000 the severity rate (the ratio of fatalities per 1000 RTAs) decreased threefold in Turkey. Turkey's rates were compared to a number of selected countries. Further investigation requiring close collaboration between police and health authorities is therefore essential.

Turkey's divided Islamists

The operation launched by the Turkish police early this year against suspected members of the Turkish Hizbullah has dealt a severe blow to the operational capabilities of the militant Islamist organisation. There are also widening splits within the Kurdish nationalist and moderate Islamist movements. These divisions are causing frustration among younger radicals. Unless the government acts swiftly to improve socio-economic conditions and ease cultural and religious restraints, there will continue to be a stream of ready recruits for Islamic militant groups. It is becoming more likely that the focus of armed resistance to the Turkish state will shift in the long term from Kurdish nationalism to religious fundamentalism.

Policy making structures of the Turkish national police organisation

This paper first of all considers a theoretical framework of the role of policing. Secondly it considers the general features of the Turkish political system, relating to the policing system. Next the paper looks at the existing policing organisational and policy‐making structures in Turkey. Then it discusses the role of the Government and the representative organisations in policing policy‐making, and then community involvement in policing in general and in policy‐making procedures in particular, indicating the importance of police‐community relations and community consultation. Finally it considers the independence, impartiality and accountability of policing policies by referring to the internal disciplinary control and complaints procedures. The paper suggests that the Turkish police have to review their own policies and organisations, balancing the needs for far greater decentralisation. The police organisation should provide for strategic policy making to guide the force consciously and systematical...

The future of policing in Turkey: current and proposed organizational changes in public policing

Turkish police organizational structures have changed dramatically since their inception and it is likely that further organizational changes and restructuring in police services will take place in the near future. Currently there is a trend slowly towards decentralization from the existing highly centralized system, and there are some proposals for future changes. This paper first of all explores different forms of police organizations responsible for public policing, then it considers the current slow trend towards decentralization and proposals for future changes in central and provincial police units. The paper argues that although there is evidence of decentralization, it is likely to take long time realize a decentralized policing system in Turkey.